The Illusive Eye

An international survey on Kinetic and Op art

Exhibition Website

Feb 3 2016 - May 21 2016

El Museo del Barrio

New York City, NY

The exhibition offers a broad intellectual context for Op art and geometric abstraction, one that goes against the grain of formalist art history. The selection provides a special focus on artwork from the Americas and features major artists from seventeen countries in Latin America and beyond. “The Illusive Eye is about illusions—those we see and feel when we look at Op and kinetic art … ”

The Illusive Eye puts forth a reading of Op art and geometric abstraction that is notably different from that of prior exhibitions, which focused on the psychology and physiology of perception. El Museo’s exhibition traces the concepts and values of optical art to its esoteric origins in Pythagorean (Egyptian) and Theosophical (Eastern) mysticism. The Illusive Eye places Op art in a truly international context, beyond that of the narrow European model of modernism as perpetuated by Western museums.

Exhibition overview from El Museo del Barrio website

VISITORS PLEASE NOTE:
Due to their fragile nature, some works of art with electronic parts will only be active during the following hours: Tuesdays and Thurdays: 2:30-3:30 pm and Fridays and Saturdays: 12- 1pm; 3:30 – 4:30 pm

  • Latin American
  • 20th Century

Exhibition Venues & Dates